In honour of the Aurora Borealis in Chinuk Wawa country
Last night, we had a super-exceptional appearance of Aurora Borealis down here in Chinuk Wawa country!
Photo from my son T, early in last night’s show
In honour of that, here’s an 1890s lesson in Jargon about the Sun and its rays:
<Distance of the Sun.> = Son iaka nainti tu ‘The Sun is ninety-two’
milian mails saia kopa ukuk ilihi: <92 000 000>. ‘million miles away from this earth; 92,000,000.’
Stim kar iaka kuli <500> mails kopa iht son, iaka ‘A strain travels 500 miles in a day; it would be traveling’
kuli <500> sno pi nanish son. = Shot kopa aias ‘for 500 years to visit the Sun. A shot from a big’
moskit iaka kuli <350> stik kopa iht sikond. ‘gun travels 350 yards* in a second.’
Iaka kuli kakwa saia kopa <15> sno, kakwa <5 000> son ‘It’d be traveling off for 15 years, so 5,000 days;’
pi lait iaka shomp <180 000> mails kopa iht ‘and light jumps 180,000 miles in one’
sikond iaka nanish son kopa <8> minit pi sitkom kakwa <500> sikonds ‘second, it’d visit the sun in 8 minutes and half, about 500 seconds;’
kakwa: lait tlap son kopa <500> sikonds ‘so: light reaches the Sun in 500 seconds’
stim kar kopa <500> sno ‘trains, in 500 years,’
moskit shot kopa <5000> son. ‘a gunshot in 5,000 days.’
— from “Kamloops Wawa” #65 (February 12, 1893), page 28
